Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Sir Jerry Levitan: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1628

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

In this 1628th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Sir Jerry Levitan about his Oscar experience, Ontario's election, the Liberal leadership race, the Beatles, John Donabie, and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1628 of Toronto Mic'd! Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Make sure I tell you a funny story about Palma pasta I just heard from yesterday's guest Manfred so prompt me for that surgery. Recyclemyelectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future, means properly recycling our electronics of the past.

Building Toronto's Skyline, a podcast and book from Nick Gainey's, sponsored by Fusion Corp, Construction Management Inc. and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, returning to Toronto Mike is Sir Jerry Levitan. Welcome back Jerry. Hey, happy to be here. What's up? Do I need to call you Sir Jerry? What's the protocol here? You are required by British law, but since we're in Canada... Who knighted you? Liz Two? Was it Liz too? Who knighted you?

No, under the, the Sergeri character, it's Mrs. Poupé. Oh, see, I don't know the, uh, The queen of the Poupé du Pays. Okay. How are things, man? Uh, I, I last saw you at TMLX 17 at Palmer's Kitchen. Yeah, which is a great, uh, this isn't a plug. It was a great place Palms Kitchen. Yeah, which is a great. This isn't a plug. It was a great place. You know, yeah, Palms Kitchen is super.

And did you buy anything during your visit or you just did for the free pasta? I didn't. I did. I bought a whole lot of stuff. I can't remember exactly what I did, but I like to show me the receipt. I need to see the receipts. I have them in my iPhone in the i show me the receipt. I need to see the receipt. I have them in my iPhone in the iCloud. Thank you. I'll wait. OK, so I, my funny story that I prompted you to

remind me to tell that I'm just going to tell because I'm afraid you'll forget because we're not getting any younger surgery. But so to put a bow on that, it was amazing to see you at a TMLx event because you're a pretty fresh FOTM. I mean, you only made your Toronto Mike debut in May 2024 and there you are engaging with the community.

So, before I tell my funny Palma pasta story, I just learned about like 20 minutes ago, what did you think of TMLx 17 at Palma's Kitchen? I thought it was great. You had a good, engaged crowd, which, you know, surprised Kitchen. I thought it was great. You had a good engaged crowd which you know surprised me. You thought it would just be you and I and maybe the VP of sales? Well a few people but they were all engaged. That was the thing that quite surprised me. So it speaks a lot about you, about Palma's Kitchen and the station. And I'm trying to remember when you popped on the mic but I feel like it was around trying to remember when you popped on the mic,

but I feel like it was around the time Brad Bradford came on the mic, and then we're gonna talk some politics in this return visit here. But Alan Zweig, who had a birthday yesterday, happy birthday, Alan Zweig. Happy birthday, Alan. Were you witness to the whole Zweig storming the table and wanting us to shut up about bike lanes? Were you witness to the whole zwiag storming the table and wanting us to shut up about

bike lanes? Were you witness to all that? I can't remember because I'm in the early stages of dementia. Is that true? Are you doing a bit there? What? Who am I? Where?

Chiri wants to know where the hell he is. Okay, so on that note though, before we press record, we're on the live stream so people can hear us. And I was joking about my, well, I wasn't joking. I am disappointed you drove here. Cause I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna, and I said, I'm not gonna give out your address, but the fact that you drove here,

like I am offended by that because I know where you, I know about where you live, but then I said, I'm not gonna dox you, but a funny comment that came in, the guy who delivers the West End Phoenix is on the live stream right now. This is the world we live in, what a small world. He's like, I know where Jerry lives

because I would deliver his West End Phoenix. Which I canceled, no offense. Well, Badini's online too. He wants to talk to you about that. Dave Badini wants to know, why did you cancel the West End Phoenix? You know, it definitely was a good thing to do and our mutual friend Jeff Roger suggested I do it, but I did it when I was, wow I'm intimidated, is that the thing you have over

there? The thing? No, this is George the animal steel. Oh, okay. Oh yeah, okay. Less intimidating. Right, yeah. He would eat the turnbuckles. His skin is better, okay. Oh, yeah. Okay. Less intimidating. Right. Yeah. He would eat the turnbuckles. His skin is better. Yeah.

He had a, that colored tongue or whatever, cause he would lick that lollipop. Well, so when I was running for the liberals in last provincial election, you know, I thought, okay, I gotta, you know, read everything and be part of everything. So that's, that's what that was all about. Are you running in this provincial election? I have been asked repeatedly and I have declined.

Why? By the way, the guy who delivers your West End Phoenix, Tyler, misses walking up your driveway. Really? Would you consider resubscribing to Dave Bedini's West End Phoenix in order to give Tyler an opportunity to walk up your driveway once more?

Yes. Okay, that's legally, you know, I know, I pretend to be a lawyer, you are a lawyer. Yeah, that's your opinion. Is that legally binding, what you just said there? No, because the key word was consider, right? That's the key word, Toronto Mike. You need no verbal consent. All right, so Tyler, if you deliver his paper,

he's not paying for it, is what I think. No, I often thought that, I was just, after the last election, I just wanted to sort of cleanse myself of all things, right? And not that I had to cleanse myself of the West End Phoenix, but it was just okay. Because talk about picking on the underdogs, like that's a pretty independent, I mean they started a newspaper in the, you know, in this century, like that tells you,

that's who you're picking on. Oh no, I wasn't picking on them. They were great. They were great. I actually sort of wanted to write a piece in it and they declined but way back then. Did they know who they were talking to? No they didn't. That's the thing. They did not know that. Now that you've been on Toronto Mic'd and again I still want to get to that Pomona story because it's just so fresh but I want to let the listenership know if they want to hear the the the A to Z. So this is not your debut. So, but Oscar nomination, his Emmy win and his lives as a lawyer and surgery. And we can touch on some of this again in this episode, but we had a chat and I'm just

here to say that I felt you hit it out of the park in your Toronto mic debut. And everyone who listened to a T said, wow, what a great guest. I think Al Grego told me was a bit like Forrest Gump, where you can't believe all this stuff is happening to one guy. Like you talked about the McCartney thing. Of course, that story about you interviewing John Lennon at the King Eddie, that's an unbelievable story. By last time I saw Jeff Rogers was at the King Eddie

for the breakfast that Hollywood Suite put on David Kind's shadow to you, my friend, but you hit it out of the park to a point where I thought maybe a sequel episode was a bad idea, like sort of like George Costanza, which kind of like that's it for me. Like I thought maybe we don't tempt fate. What if this is a dog? I love that first episode so much. Can I eat a pastrami sandwich while we're doing this? Yes. You know, I like to have the multiple experiences. I actually recorded this morning already. You're the second episode of the day, believe it or not.

And I referenced Art Vandeley in the first recording because he's a, he went to school for architecture. And, and Kramer had a character when he was acting like a fancy man with a pipe, uh, uh, one nostrum, something, something one. Absolutely. And yeah, fantastic. So let me get to the pasta story and then we'll talk more about you not running for a election. But speaking of, of, of John Lennon and I'm happy,

always happy to talk about it. Not to everybody, but generally. But this is how crazy that story is. So happened in 1969, so 50 some odd years ago. I'm still in touch with Yoko, with Sean. In fact, during the Grammys we were texting, the son of John Lennon. Now how crazy is that? No, that's absolutely nuts.

Yeah, and we're gonna actually get to that because I got a comment about Sean Lennon actually of all things, and I do wonder what you can say and if you can't say anything just touch your nose and I'll go to the next question but how's Yoko doing? I haven't like I rarely I usually speak with with sort of the creative CEO at the Lenin organization and and Sean so know, I generally say, how's Yoko or how's your mom?

And it's- She's good. But, you know, so I haven't seen her in a few years, but look, she's 91, 92. You know, I'm 38 this July and I feel like shit. I think that sweater's 38. It's an old sweater. We're getting close there, okay.

So, excuse me, excuse me. I'm gonna have to drink some of this coffee here. But I, where was it going? The Palmer story, yeah, I gotta get it out or I'll never get to it. But yesterday's guest is a rock and roll guy. His name's Manfred and he's in a band called Elephants and Stars.

So like every guest, including you today, Sir Jerry, he got a large lasagna, a frozen lasagna from Palma Pasta. You are driving to your home, which is like a block away, you're driving home with a Palma Pasta lasagna. It's in my freezer. That's fact. Well, that's great. And the only reason I drove we are literally around the corner from each other The only reason I drove is I'm going someone else somewhere else from here. I'm going to 7th Street. Okay. Well, yeah, we don't use Specifics in this podcast, but I'll fix help fix that one in pose cuz but that's many many miles away, Jerry You're gonna go all the way there. Holy smokes. Okay. Yeah, that's a long way from here now It's in Newmark.

Okay, yes. So Manfred got his lasagna and then he had to go to a gig downtown because they were playing the, the Baby G which is on Dundas I believe. And he was gonna do a gig. So he parks his car and he goes for a walk because he was early. Then he comes back to his car and his car has been

broken into and he goes, oh no, my guitar is in that car. My guitar, I'm about to play my guitar, my beloved guitar. And then he looks and he sees the guitar was not touched, but they stole the palm of pasta lasagna. This is a true story. He shared it with me this morning. So this I sent it to Anthony at bomb a boss. I said, there's no better endorsement. They looks like leave the gun take the cannoli, right?

Leave the guitar take the lasagna that happened last night, sir. Jerry. It's that's an ad like it's it's like, you know you get him to do like a What do you call it? Well when you speak for you? English? English, an endorsement. I can't remember the term I'm looking for, but you do that and you air it on radio stations and stuff. Yeah, and TikTok. I don't know if you're aware of TikTok. Are you on TikTok?

I am on TikTok. So how's that going for you? Because I actually have never installed the app or created an account on TikTok. You know, you have kids, young and younger. Young and old, young and old. Not as many as you though. Like I do, yeah.

I have many wonderful children and four grandchildren. But my youngest child, Lana, who's 13, is the TikTok generation. And she got me, she wanted me to go on TikTok, and I said I'd only do it as Sir Jerry. So I did a few of these TikTokian, wacky things to music or whatever. And not that long ago, Lana said,

dad, you've got like hundreds of, you've got thousands of followers. And sure enough, I have on, on one tick tock, I have something I can't remember, whatever, but not only that, what people do is they get a song that's out there in the ether and they do silly, stupid things about it. One of my songs is called a surgery science called bad drivers. but things about it. One of my songs is called, Sir Jerry's song is called Bad Drivers. And my daughter Lana keeps repeating throughout the song, you're a bad driver. That's when she was much younger. There are hundreds of tick tock and crazy things to bad drivers. So I'm sort of a hit on tick tock and the Chinese people love me. You're a bad driver.

There you go. Driving in our car, Lana and Jamie too. Going not too far, listening to the radio. A cloudy day today, a little rain is drizzling down. The road is pretty clear, but then a blue car cuts in front of us. I make our car go slow, he does the same and turns around. I say a naughty word, the girls say I should calm down. I say the word again, ignoring me he goes more slow.

I say a different word, he laughs at me and then he carries on Bad drivers, bad drivers Bad drivers They'll make you late when you have somewhere to go They drive you fast know Sir Jerry drives everywhere. So okay, that's as good an endorsement for TikTok as Manfred had for Palma Pasta Lasagna. That's amazing. Good success there. Now, so just because people will go back and hear your Toronto Mike debut if they missed it. If they heard this, they'll go back because it's amazing. You hit it out of the park. But remind us, who the hell is

Sir Jerry? What are we talking about? When I was going through my last divorce. How many divorces are we at? Last count, 42. Just two divorces, right? Two divorces. So are you married right now? I am happily married right now. It has worked out wonderfully.

And all the kids get along and all the grandkids get along. It's a modern family. Okay, so you're with your third wife and this is the final wife. Look me in the eyes. Yeah, because I expected- Because you're gonna die soon. I was gonna say, yeah, we're in sync.

I expect to pass away by Sunday. Now the funeral home has a measuring tape for you and if you're gonna pass away by Sunday, maybe we give a heads up to Brad Jones at the funeral right now. Can I still take the pasta? You know what? Yeah, because your kids got to eat, right? Okay. So can I ask you five kids, right? Yeah. Okay. You know, Brad has six kids with one wife. Wow. Isn't that a mind? She's like a machine.

Yeah. Like I'm like, okay, Brad, are you in your fourth marriage? What's going on? You got six kids. He's like, no, I only have one marriage. And I like my brain can't compute. Okay. So I have the four kids, but two marriages to each marriage. Can you give me the breakdown? Was it like two to one? Like, how does your kids per wife go ratio go? So first marriage when great CNN never asked me to Sean Lennon want to know this?

He does know it because the first time we talked was on a Zoom during the pandemic and it was when he wanted me to do these animations, produce these animations for Spotify for his dad's album. He says, so like, you got a bunch of kids and you're a lawyer and you're running to be a politician? What? What the fuck is that? Anyways, so first marriage, I got married when I was 23. I had my first kid at 26. So what do you know?

Similar. So three kids, three wonderful kids from number one, numero uno. Number two, the liaison happened, sort of as the dust was settling from apocalypto number one. Right. And that didn't last that long, but I have a wonderful daughter from that engagement.

So it was worth it. Yeah, totally, 100%. And Anissa, who I'm married to now, That engagement so it was worth it. Yeah, totally 100% and Anisa who I'm married to now we actually met as I in the infancy of sir Jerry as my shows were evolving I kept adding characters and musicians and I one day I said I need dancers And she's a national ballet graduate and now has produces things. Is she an intimacy coordinator? She's also an intimacy coordinator, but there's not a lot of intimacy coordination going on in our home if you know what I'm talking about.

Wow. This is the real talk people tune in for. That's right. Like no coordination, right? Although on occasion she you say, what? There you have it. Sir Jerry Raw. What we're hearing here.

So I mean, so many questions, but. Geez, so many questions, but for you answers, few I can say on this podcast here, I want to respect your privacy here. But OK, so five kids and four grandkids. And okay, so you have one kid with your current wife? Yeah, that's it. Okay, I had to do the math. See who's left here.

We gotta get to five here. All right, that's exciting. And- But you know, as a dad with a variety of ages of kids, we're both in tune multi-generationally in tune, particularly in pop culture, right? So I know sort of the latest stuff. The way I look at it is I can do Blue's Clues,

because my 23-year-old was a huge Blue's Clues fan, just crazy about Blue's Clues. But I can also do Bluey, because my eight year old was a huge Bluey fan before she graduated to the Simpsons. So. Right. Well speaking of Blue, have you seen that Robert Kennedy

Jr. recently, in the last couple of days, was at some event or speaking or something and cameras caught him or someone caught him, he had a drink in front of him and he squirted this blue liquid. Oh, no, I'm kind of out of this loop. No, right. So the media is trying to figure out is it antifreeze? What is that? Maybe kills worms in the brain. I don't know. Anyways, all right a lot of a lot of ground to cover here. Oh, yeah, I was gonna ask I had I was gonna ask you an Anissa question

Geez, what was it gonna be? I had it at the tip of my tongue. Okay, it is episode two of the day I was gonna ask an Anissa question. Geez, what was it gonna be? I had it at the tip of my tongue. Okay, it is episode two of the day, so you're gonna have to carry the weight. Carry the weight, see what I did there, okay. She's actually right now with Guillaume Cotet, principal dancer at National Ballet.

They grew up together at National Ballet in shows in Quebec with Robert Lepage. Anybody who knows about dance knows about Robert Lepage. Anybody who knows about dance knows about Robert Lepage in Canada. And so she goes for days, weeks on end and I'm in charge of Lana. Beautiful. Thank you. Now, great detail was told in your meeting with John Lennon when you were a teenager.

How old were you? 14. 14. The story is unbelievable, so get to that first episode. We're not going to recount it, but who knows? Maybe we will. But I wondered, as a Torontonian for decades who loved the radio, were you familiar of John Donobie? Yeah, totally.

Are you kidding? Yeah, I know. I knew you were. It was the only game in town Chum Chum AM Chum FM, right? So We lost John Donahby last week, right? I written I yeah Yeah, you and John do have something in common and you have both interviewed John Lennon. That's your link I know a lot of radio guys have interviewed John Lennon, but John Donahby many times Would interview John Lennon and in tribute to John Donahby since I'm talking to the kid who interviewed John Lennon I thought maybe

we'd listen to like a couple of minutes of John Donahby talking to John Lennon you want to do that? Yeah sure. All right this is a in loving memory of a sweetheart FOTM John Donahby and if you want to hear I think I did two hours of John Donahby about his career I just recently like we put that together repackaged it as a memorial episode so it's in the Toronto Mike feed I think I did two hours of John Donobie about his career. I just recently like re-put that together, repackaged it as a memorial episode. So it's in the Toronto Mike feed. I think I dropped it like last Friday or something like that. So find that. Here's John Donobie talking about John Lennon. got a nice secret hideaway for you. I wonder if he's still living in the same place? I had a great time last time. No, he sold that particular farm and he's living at another farm at this particular point. I certainly gave him a call when I was up there.

Tell me John, let's talk about Walls and Bridges for a moment. I understand the album took roughly six weeks to put together? Yeah, six weeks in the studio, eight weeks from start to getting into the shops in some of the... I know it's not out there yet, but it's nearly out, you know? Mm-hmm. Is that...? And normally I'm not more than eight weeks in a studio at a time, you know? Because I find myself getting bored after eight weeks, you know? Uh-huh. Are you one of those people that feel if you can't get it in the first few takes, it's perhaps not worth it, or...? Yeah, I hate going over and over a song, you know?

Because you get to hate it, the musicians get to hate it and it begins to sound stiff, you know? I like to catch myself and the musicians at that point just before they're going to get bored, when they're still interested in it because it's a new song. And just before you go into that bit where it's, well, and that's not going to happen i think it's a good and drop it uh... and i think it's a long way off to the next album

john how do you go about deciding exactly who you want on the lp do you do you feel who would be best on that particular cut or do you like to use people for saying an entire LP? I like to use the same musicians for a whole album. I like to augment them with different people but basically I like to get people that I've worked with before if possible because then they know what I'm talking about if I'm trying to explain myself to them and also I feel more relaxed if I'm with friends, you know? Right.

And I like, and if they've played together before, it's the next best thing to having a permanent group. Was it a bit of a personal favor perhaps that Harry, Nilsson, and Elton decided to do the album or come on some of the cuts with you? Well, it was almost by accident. I was producing Harry Nilsson's album, Pussycat, out now in your local store, folks.

And we were hanging out together. And we wrote a song together. And so I put it on my album and Harry, of course, wanted to sing it because he'd been part of it. So he sang the harmony and with Elton I was I'd been introduced to Elton over maybe eight months ago by a mutual friend Ringo and another guy Tony King from Apple and we got on fine together you know and he just popped into New York on his way through and walked in the studio and said hey can I put some piano on that I said sure you know go ahead so he runs in plays that?" And I said, sure, you know, go ahead. So he runs in, plays piano. And then I said, look, while you're here, do you want to sing harmony? He said, sure. And he sang the harmony. And that's on the single, whatever gets you through the night. And then he told me he was going to record

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds for a single. And he asked me, would I go to Carribou and sing it with him? So I said, sure, you know, it'll be a pleasure, so I went down there and sang that, and that's the way it goes, and it's good for you. Now the interview goes for several minutes, so I'll bring it down, but Jerry, is it bringing back some memories of? You know, speaking, he was, it was the Walls and Bridges era.

Sean and this guy, Simon Hilton, who's the creative cio atlanta uh... organization one grammy for best i think repackaged material and what they did is they took the mind games album which i think was the album before walls and bridges unbelievably spectacular what they've done it's like now like a four five six CD package

thing and they've isolated John's voice and enhanced it and done all kinds of stuff so it's I don't get a commission on it but you really got it if you love John Lennon you got to check this out because it's the art. So the comment that came in from Mark, Mark only speaks for Mark, okay, this is his opinion, but he goes, now that Sean Lennon won a Grammy for repackaging a dad album nobody cared about the first time around, there's no stopping him. But the one with woman is the n-word of the world will probably remain a third rail. You know, that song, I remember when it came out it was so Beatle-esque it was

so like I'm the walrus scary you know happiness is a warm gun song and at the time if I remember correctly the black community though the radical black community embraced it because he was hanging out with Black Panthers and stuff like that. And the message of woman is the end of the world. Like if you, you know, parse away the the the politics of names and things like that that we have today, the bottom line is women are at the bottom of the line everywhere. Right? But it didn't age well. It didn't age well.

It didn't age well. But you know, I mean, I'm a huge fan of Pulp Fiction. Like, maybe my favorite movie of all time. And there's a huge scene with Tarantino dropping N-word after N-word. And you know, and it's like, I don't think, you know, it's like one of those, I personally won't use it, like you won't find it in the Toronto McDonald's, I'll say N-word if I need to reference the N-word, but it is interesting that that song

with the N-word in the title, which might be a great song. It's just, you know. Here's a line from it, we make them paint their face and dance, right? Right. Okay, now I don't make anyone paint their face and dance. Well, on that note, so it's funny, I was wrestling, I was gonna say something about your wife,

and I forgot what I was gonna say, and then I remembered it, and so I remembered what I was gonna say while we were listening to John Donobie, Rest In Peace and Shout Out to Ridley Funeral Home, we lost a good one there. But I remembered what I was gonna say, and then my brain, and I heard in my brain

what I was going to say, and it was a stupid comment. And I said, Mike, that's not good enough to say. Like, it's like, what were you gonna say that is stupid? And it was, I was gonna ask, and I'll just say it now because I can't not say it now, but I was gonna ask, when there's intimacy in your home, if Anissa requests you stay in the Sergeri character because you might remember mr. plow call mr. plow that's my name do you ever watch the Simpsons

okay you're missing I have watched Simpson but I can't you don't speak Simpsons get the hell out of my basement. Okay, but Marge did ask that Homer stay in the mr. Plow Character with the mr. Plow jacket when they were coordinating their intimacy If I dressed up as sir Jerry in intimate Scenarios there would be no intimate scenarios, but you're saying there is intimate scenarios now Yes, Mike intimate scenarios. But you're saying there is intimate scenarios now. Yes Mike. There are and there are no boundaries. No no bound no coordination required. Love it so much. Love that this is all happening in New Toronto you know. Keep

it sexy baby. Okay speaking of sexy we are going to the the polls. The provincial election is later this month. What is it, February 27th? Something like that. So we got 20 days to go. I do want to revisit something we said off the top and then we had to get silly because now it's time to get serious, Sir Jerry. Now you were asked to run in this election.

What party asks you where and why did you say no? I've been a liberal even before the days of Pierre Trudeau as a kid growing up you know liberals at least many many young young kids were enamored by the idea that Canada was going to be this great international loving tolerant society and all those kind of things and Lester Pearson started it from my perspective growing up. And then Pierre Trudeau came along and like he was a hero of mine. So I've been a liberal since then.

And so it's the Liberal Party that and people in the Liberal Party that have asked me all the once I was asked to run for the NDP. That's another story. So, Bonnie Cromby and the Ontario Liberals is what we're talking about. And you know, a couple people asked me to run and thought I was gonna run because I ran last time and I'm taking a pass. Why are you taking a pass? Well, it's not that I'm afraid of hard work. I worked really hard in the last election, like knocked on tens of thousands of doors and had a great team.

It's just I'm not, the mojo isn't there for me right now. And you know, I'd be happy and it was true back then I would have been happy to have won and be in the opposition in many times that's for someone like me that would be a Better thing, you know, you can say what you want to say and you can just go for it so that that wouldn't be an impediment, but just I Don't have the mojo What writing are we talking about here? I was asked to run in Spadina, Fort York, which

which originally, I was going to run in the last election but The powers that be at the time thought I'd be best suited taking on merit styles and Davenport. So that's where I was. So that was, that was a fun experience. Um, so Spadina Fort York, and was suggested, uh, I run in other writings too, but Spadina Fort York would have fit because I lived there, uh, around Queen and Spadina for some 25 years and had a lot of support, still would have a lot of support there and it's the question of me running federally

in Spadina for York has raised its head and I haven't totally closed the door on that. I want to see how the leadership scene plays and whether Trump is gonna send tanks into new market. I'll say new market twice. You're picking on new market today. Yeah. Were you a big new market saints fan? Do you remember the new market saints?

Sports is not my, not your, no sports. So let me get this straight. Yeah. I can't talk Simpsons or sports. What the hell am I going to say? No, you can talk and you have talked. I mean, you haven't stopped talking since I got here. You do know it's called Toronto Mike.

Oh, sir. Jerry is a different podcast. I wish I had an intimacy. How dare you drive here from a block away and criticize the host of this fine podcast. And I was going to give you Great Lakes beer. Should I? Okay. Fresh. Do you drink beer? Yeah. Well, you do.

Uh, I drive, you know, like a block away and drink beer. Well, you know, it's not while driving. No, I'm just going to say, you're trying to run for politics. You can't be saying things like that. We do not condone drinking and driving on this podcast. If you've had too much to drink, um, I'll pick you up on my bike. Give me a call. I'll get you. I'll get you. I'll pick you up because as bike. Give me a call. I'll get you. I'll get you. I'll pick you up because as you know from Mike that I drive everywhere even to take the garbage out to the end of my driveway

What was the what was the Steve Martin movie about Los Angeles or whatever where there was a funny scene la story Yes, do you remember the scene where they get in the car? To drive and it's like the next door. They drove next door or they get in the car to drive and it's like the next door they drove next door because I because it's one of those things where you don't see it because then they pull out and you see he and I laughed I mean I laughed I know that joke's been done in different ways a million times but I laughed out loud because in LA you do drive everywhere yeah yeah I know great story shout out to Steve Martin okay uh I want to finish with provincial before we get to the federal leadership race uh what about the riding you live in right now which is currently uh there's the Shout out to Steve Martin. OK, I want to finish with provincial before we get to the federal leadership raise.

What about the writing you live in right now, which is currently the MPP is a progressive conservative member named Christine Hogarth. Yeah. What are your thoughts on Christine and how are you feeling about voting here? Well, I know who's running here and it's voting here? Well, I know who's running here and it's Lee Fairclaw and I know her. She's great. She's just an administrator of a major hospital and ran last time giving up that job because she saw how health care was just deteriorating. That's like the best kind of person running in politics, like actually for a reason.

And so she's spectacular. So obviously I wouldn't run here. And I don't really know. I've only been here for about three years or four years or so. So I don't really know the area very much. But you, of course, you know how to look at the most recent results and you can see that Lee, the liberal candidate in this riding, was pretty close. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if you wanted to oust Doug Ford and if you wanted to vote against the Progressive Conservative Party, even if you're an NDP voter, you would be smarter to cast your vote

for Lee Faircloth. How do you say the last name? I'm not, okay, now you're putting NDP voter, you would be smarter to cast your vote for Lee Faircloth. How do you say the last name? I'm not, okay, now you're putting me on the spot. Faircloth is how I always read it when I see the signs, but maybe I need to ask Lee how you say her last name. But I've heard nothing but good things. And to a point where when Brad Bradford was here, we were talking privately afterwards. That's when the good stuff comes out.

And he was telling me how excellent a candidate Lee is and how good she would be for this right you should have her on because she's unusual in this day and age in that like I said is running for a reason right and you know all name drop now many years many many years ago the liberals want to be run federally because I was a lawyer in the news, young lawyer in the news. And you're Sir Jerry for goodness sakes. Yeah, Sunday was way before Sir Jerry.

So it was Sunday shopping, I won the case for video stores and bookstores and stuff. So anyways, Paul Martin called me to try to get me to run and being the cocky young lawyer, now I'm just a cocky old lawyer, but a cocky young lawyer. And I said, well, I'm, I'd want to speak to my hero, Pierre Trudeau. I'm a pure Trudeau liberal. They arranged it. It went to see Trudeau and to make a very long story short, cause we talked about John Lennon. We talked about John Lennon. And as we're talking about John Lennon, when I met Trudeau in, in his, in his office,

he s he said, um, so why, why do you want to run? And he caught me off guard cause, um, Paul Martin called me to talk about it. It's not like I had a specific idea and I, I don't remember what I said, but I talked like an idiot. I like it. Oh, to do the things you do that blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And he smirked that sardonic Pierre Trudeau smirk. And he slapped my knee. We were sitting on this couch and the Einstein Peace Award was on top.

And he said, look, if you're going to run, find a reason. You know, even if it's to get a mailbox in front of your grandmother's home, otherwise you're like all these bums. Wow, sound effect. And that. That was the sound of him slapping your knee. Yeah, I had a metal insert even back then. But that resonated and resonates to this day

because that's the point. You have so many, and I've seen them, right? Cause I was in it. you have so many and I've seen them right because I was in it you have so many people running and if you add put them on the spot and say why you're running you'll get bullshit right and that's what's refreshing about Lee Faircloth as I've decided to call her but and you know you said I should get her on but that would break my streak where I'm on episodes I've never pursued or invited an active politician on this program. Every single active politician who has been on Toronto Mic

just because they reached out and said, would you have me on? Wow. Every single one. Wow. And I feel like that's kind of, I kind of dig it that way because then I, you know, I don't want to be the guy who only talks to the liberal candidates, like theoretically if and she hasn't reached out. But if Christine Hogarth, who I'm no fan of, it sounds like you're no fan either. But if she reached out and said, would you like to talk to me on your podcast? I actually, for her, I would say yes, because I have questions for her. Like I want to have a conversation with her.

And I would say yes. And I don't want to be, if I'm'm reaching out am I just reaching out to like People who like bike lanes is that gonna be my thing only? Politicians who want to like put bike lanes on every street or whatever But so I'd rather they just ask me if they want to come on and then if I deem them worthy I say yes Well, I got that that's that's fair, you know, so Lee you got to ask to come on is what we're saying here So I'll speak to her, you know, if she asked to come on is what we're saying here. So, Well, I'll speak to her. You know what? If she asked to come on, I would have her on.

So, totally want to have her on. Now that's what's happening. Can I cut before we leave the subject? Yeah, let's stay provincial and we'll play into it. I mean, here's the thing. I'm not running, so I'm not an active politician. I'm barely an active human. As you know, I drove here.

But here's the thing, you know, you know, the Ford conservatives, I mean, when you actually take the time to look at it, forget what your political stripe is. We're really talking about billions of dollars that are just flying away for stupid, inappropriate inappropriate reasons billions and billions of dollars whether you're talking about Ontario Place or the Green Belt Fiasco or or canceling the beer contract a year before it would cancel anyways giving people 200 bucks you know who doesn't want 200 bucks but did you get yours yet I did

okay I got mine yesterday really okay took a while I got mine two weeks ago yeah right but you know like if you add it up just take the time and add up these unnecessary inappropriate expenditures money that would go into our school you're you're a dad you know the school system. Like when I went on parent teacher interview a few months ago, the place, the school was filthy, like garbage on the steps. And when I went to the teacher and I said, like, geez, you'd think that the caretaker would clean it up for parent teacher interview. Right. And, you know, the health system,

homeless people, kids can't afford, young people can't afford homes. So why the hell would you vote conservative? Now, I got to say, having said that, I like what he's done in terms of the Trump stuff. And even though he's doing it for political reasons, to a large extent, for political reasons to a large extent. That was necessary and still is necessary for some people like Trudeau and the Prime Minister has to and some premiers have to sort of tread a easy line because hundreds of thousands of jobs are at stake but he you know he started acting like Captain Canada and you need people to actually say it. So anyways. No, my previous guest hates Trudeau, his own words, but I had wanted to commend him on that speech. So it's, you know, giving credit where credit is due. So absolutely. Now, I'm thinking

municipally real quick before I branch out, is in our neighborhood there is a proposed shelter at 66 3rd Street. Yeah. And I have in my calendar a gentleman, his name is Bruce Davis. So Bruce Davis is not a, he's not a, he's not political, but he's been appointed as I guess a point person or whatever for the consultations and making sure people understand what's true, what's false with this proposed homeless,

what do we call it, a shelter for the unhoused etc. Now Bruce will be on Toronto Mike to answer a bunch of pointed questions and to get some real talk on this, but what are your thoughts Sir Jerry as a citizen of this neighborhood? Sure, I know this subject, not just this shelter, very well. So as a lawyer, many years ago, I represented a place called NAMIRA, it's a very important shelter, the Native Men's Residence, and it's on Vaughan.

And I originally was hired to get indigenous people on the board and get rid of the white people, right? And we did, and I was involved with them. They get rid of the white people, right? And we did and I was involved with them. They were the one of the first organizations that had a, they would take vans out, you know, in winter in the middle of the night and I would go with them. So amazing, amazing organization. So through that I, way back when I understood that, when I was running, one of the files that was, ones that I had to get grips with was housing.

And I spent a lot of time with Adam Vaughn, for example, who was the MP for Spadina Fort York. And that guy is great in terms of knowledge of urban affairs and housing and things like that. So I spent a lot of time and part of it was dealing with homelessness. And it's not a solution just to drop a shelter in neighborhoods that some people think is a good idea,

just to drop them without a plan. And the best plans that are going on in Scandinavia and parts of Europe are ones where it's not just creating a shelter and saying, because it's in a neighborhood, it's good for people to experience that on both sides. You think about it. So you find an area that may be on the periphery

of a neighborhood and you create a mini sort of urban situation so that in the center of it there's a health, a small health clinic, even if it's in a van, there's a social person who can assist in integrating people in the community. You have an employment sort of guidance person and you create, there are all these mini homes that you can create just out of sort of used containers and stuff where it's not people in a tent and whatever. And part of that is you can control the drug use and the alcohol use and it becomes a more coherent thing.

So my understanding of this is, yeah, there's a place, it's near the water Will use it. Well, how are they going to be integrated for their own purposes, right? What what are they going to do walk through this area and go on to Lakeshore? Where Lakeshore in this area is is already you know that has all kinds of problems. It just it's fundamentally It's just fundamentally inappropriate from all of my reading of how you do it, like I said in Scandinavia and Europe. It's just, you know, here's, we're going to stick it to people in a neighbourhood that really we don't care where the votes are coming from. Will you be attending the drop-in community session that is taking place on Monday, February 10th from five to eight p.m. at Humber College Lakeshore Campus, Building G. You know, I have the flyer.

I was, like, I'm just so, I'm not joking, I'm just so upset with so many things. And you know, the reason I ran was because I knew I could make a contribution and just nothing seems to be right these days and can I go on this rant about Old City Hall? Like, you know, I wrote a piece, like I write quite regularly for the Toronto Star and I wrote a piece that I don't even know if it's gonna go in, but Old City Hall. So this building is an amazing building.

And when I started as an articling student, right out of law school, I would have to go there and up until two months ago, I went to courtroom. And, you know, it was the piece in the start of that city council for this debate about Old City Hall has been going on for decades. It's been a courthouse since I think, well, when New City Hall came out. My marriage number one took place at Old City Hall.

All right. All right. How beautiful is that place? Great memories. Right? Two beautiful children. So the courthouse is now, all the courts in the whole world of Ontario, the Toronto area,

are now in this massive, crazy building on University, one of Doug Ford's brilliant ideas. And so they've been transitioning Old City Hall, so within a month or two, that's it. It's gonna be an empty building. If you go now, there are maybe two courts that you can go there to, or a clerk's office. It's like a ghost night, it's like an Adam Sandler

horror movie, you know? Anyways, the latest thing is for another study and whatever, and the buzz is to create it into a Toronto City Museum. So this is four stores of this gothic spectacular building. Beautiful building. Yeah. And I think the people of Toronto and tourists from Buffalo are clamouring to go in and see portraits of William Somerville, who was a mayor back in the 60s, and oh, here's like a door of one of a historic building that...

Like, who gives a flying whatever? You know what I mean? Like, all you need is one sort of semi-large room, right, to do that. So my idea is to create the Toronto Art Centre for independent artists, the courtrooms, there are small ones, big ones, mediums. There, you wouldn't have to do much, there are little theatres, there are rehearsal space, and you know, tens of thousands of independent artists

are in desperate need of something. Like that's not the only idea, although I think it's a good one. A museum? Maybe if it was like a museum to Toronto's rich music history, you know, like the Orkfield, the coffee houses in the 60s. Well that could be integrated. You don't need four massive floors, right? So you could have all these youngish people, media artists, and that was part of my piece. They could deal with those things. So if you have musicians working there for rehearsal space and to have performances or whatever, you could go into a room where you'd see what the rich, like you say, I mean Yorkville was like wow, who knows about that. But if leave it to city council to create a museum of Toronto, it'll

be look how great we are. Here's the CN tower. This is when they put the spike on it. And this counselor was this and the Henry Moore things came over whatever. So John Tory wing, the John John Tory. So basically what it would be be and this was in my piece, like I said, I don't know it's going in because I didn't pull any punches. It's like here's a museum of how great and promising Toronto was, right? And now look at it. Like as much as we all love, I mean you're Toronto Mike. I'm Toronto Mike. As much as we love Toronto. Born at St. Joe's Health Centre. Okay.

Parkdale, shout center okay Parkdale shadowed the Parkdale right exactly beautiful like the history of Parkdale like you know Heinzman Toronto at one point and around 1900 was the largest as I understand it manufacturer of pianos in North America shadowed Glenn Gould I had no idea. Yeah, Parkdale. But anyways, it's so... You can replace Jeremy Hopkins as the official Toronto historian of the Toronto Mike Podcast. Why, thank you.

But Hopkins might not like that, he might beat you up. But back to your point about the shelter, I mean, there's just, like, I'm exhausted from all the problems in Toronto and running and then afterwards and writing for the Star about how the transportation system is so fucked up. Can I say that? Yeah, you just did. Housing, like, jeez.

Well, can I ask you more about 66 third before we move on to the next topic? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So you know what? I think because you've raised it, originally I wasn't gonna go because I would just be frustrated. I think because you've raised it originally I wasn't gonna go because I would just be frustrated I

I think I will here's what I want you to do. Okay, so I've again this all back in jane December amber Morley came over now amber Morley is an active politician and She came over and we did talk at great lengths about this shelter. And she told me that, yeah, the guy who you need to talk to who's non-political, because Amber Morley wants to get reelected next year, the person you wanna talk to is Bruce Davis. So I reached out to Bruce, we had a, you know, and Bruce tells me he's hosting this drop-in session

Monday, the February. So I wanted to, I'm talking to Bruce after that. So I want him to have that community session and hear from, because I know there's a staunch anti-shelter crowd forming who don't think, and part of it, and I just want to hear out everything. Like I don't want to do things just to do things. I don't want things to be well planned like yourself. I don't want like to hear like NIMBYism, like not in my backyard. But so part of what I find encouraging is that this shelter, which right now it's a parking lot, it's not opening until it'll be open. They say sometime between 2028 and 2030. So this probably means 2035 or something like we'll be

dead. I'm already dead. Don't cry for me. I'm already dead. So there seems like there is a lot of time to do this right. Like, I mean, this consultation happens Monday and then Bruce Davis will be on. So what I want you to do as like a

valued FOTM surgery is I want you to go to this event at Humber College Lakeshore Campus, Building G, 17, Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive. I want you to go there. Bruce Davis is going to host. I think Amber Morley is going to be there. You don't have to ask.

Just take it all in and then submit to me all of your questions because I'm going to have a one-on-one with Bruce Davis and I'm just looking for facts and to air the concerns of the citizens And etc. Etc. Like you could give me these are ten Pointed questions you have for Bruce Davis regarding 66 3rd Street, and I will ask them You accept this challenge I accept it I will I will do it You know, I know without even going too far, like I said, you know, like what I know about how to deal with homelessness and people with drug issues and stuff like that,

that's not the way to do it. To plunk them at the bottom of a neighborhood where on one side is water, and then it's a 15- minute walk to Lakeshore, what is that? What is that gonna do? It's a no minute walk to Lakeshore, right? Cause it's at Lakeshore and third.

Oh, well, I mean, at Lakeshore Boulevard. Okay. Well, okay. Well, that's, that's like, no, okay. So, so yeah, you're, so this neighborhood we're talking about, like this is at Lakeshore and third, basically the shelter. Close to the water. Right. Very close to the water. Yeah. So this neighborhood we're talking about, like this is at Lake Shore and 3rd basically, the shelter they're proposing.

Close to the water. Right. Very close to the water. Yeah. So to get to the main street, you know, the East West Street of this neighborhood, which has its own problems as it is, but to go to a variety store or grocery store, get some cigarettes or whatever. It doesn't have a grocery store, first of all.

Yeah. You've got to go to No Frills. They actually do, and there's one there's run by an Asian family on the north side. It's actually not that bad. Okay, that's yes. Okay, I've seen that's a smaller. I haven't gone in because I'm afraid the price is...

I don't know, I got to feed a lot of kids there. Well, it's cheaper. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. It's better prices than at farm them backslash they. So everybody in New Toronto or anyone who's just interested more in the 66 Third Street shelter that's been proposed, tune into Bruce Davis's Toronto Mike debut,

which is gonna be in, I think later this month. So do that. Sir Jerry, you've got your assignment here. How do you think Amber Morley is doing as a rookie city councillor for this? What are we calling it? Riding? It's not a ward? Is it a ward? What do you think Amber Morley is doing as our as a rookie city counselor for this? What are we calling riding? It's not a war. Is it a ward? What do you call me? Yes, it's a word. Okay. How do you think Amber Morley is doing? lousy Well, let's get the real talk on that. I want to hear what you mean. I haven't dug into it that much but you know, I

You know, I don't want to get in too many specifics, but I may have voted for her in fact Because I just I mean I generally vote liberal but not all the time if if there's something Humbant was Mark Grimes and I know you're fairly new to the neighborhood, but he had been here a long time and Greasy AF. Yeah, greasy AF. What does that mean? Greasy is fuck Yeah, greasy AF. What does that mean? Greasy as fuck. I got to teach Sir Jerry the new lexicon. So you're not a fan at this point. You're not a fan of him. No, for a variety of reasons. And I wouldn't vote for her again.

OK, interesting. Let's talk about this federal leadership race here. So I know a lot about that. OK, because Chudo hit it out of the park, in my humble opinion, with his speech and pushing back against the proposed terrorists, which maybe this will tie into that. Okay, because Chudo hit it out of the park in my humble opinion with his speech and pushing back against the proposed tariffs, which maybe this will tie into that. So what are your thoughts on the liberal leadership race? What's next for when they when the pro-rogue is how you say it pro-rogue when they're back in parliament, if they get voted down, there will be an election. What do you think of that? And then please let me hear your thoughts on Donald J. Trump, president of the United States of America and his threats to annex this country and make it the 51st state.

And even that and the 25% tariffs, we have some kind of stay of execution on till, uh, till I don't know, early March or something, uh, let's start. I'm going to drink my coffee and let you go for half an hour. So I'll talk slowly. Uh, let's start with the liberal leadership.

First of all, Justin Trudeau, AKA the prime minister. When I was running provincially a number of years ago, I'd knock on the door and someone, many people invariably would say, liberal, no way, I'm not voting liberal, I hate Justin Trudeau. And at the beginning I would say, what is it specifically that you hate?

And remember this was at the time of COVID, Serb, right? Hard to say back and then that Trudeau and the liberal government didn't have people's backs, right? If you take your mind back to that. But anyways, I would say, what is it specifically that you, I don't like him, right?

And to this day, you sorta get that. Sure, there have been ups and downs and sometimes some policy decisions aren't necessarily the right ones, but can you say that he's mismanaged our economy our economy was doing relatively well anyways in politics you know as a voter I think you got to look at the whole perspective because sure you might not like him or the government for whatever reason. And then what is the result? The result with that kind of attitude is people like Donald Trump,

right? How does that guy get in all those Republican lemmings, right? Um, it's because votes get split and people vote out of anger and out of emotion, you know, out of rage. They want to express it, so they end up, what's the expression, you cut your nose to spite your face. Right. And that's the worst kind of way to vote. So personally, I think it's too bad that he resigned, but he had to because things were just so stacked up against him. And you saw the real Justin Trudeau, how he's been acting, um, since then, and it's been admirable.

The easy thing is to act like Doug Ford and say, oh yeah, the Americans, we're going to take the booze off the American products off the way. That's an easy thing to do. But Justin Trudeau had to think about if he pisses Trump off that much vocally, right? 300,000 jobs go in Oshawa. He has to be diplomatic about it because he needs to work. Yeah. He's trying to work with Trump. He's thinking of the people, right? Absolutely. Right. But anyways, so, um, I think most people would, would agree, forget about your political stripe. if you said to them,

what do we need now as a leader? I think most people would say, well, it would be good to have someone who really knows how to deal with the economy and knows international. Well, I know who you're talking about. Yeah. Hence, Ruby Dull. So I think Mark Carney like totally fits the bill. And the guy isn't a career politician and all these things, oh, he's been, you know, he's to blame for what the government is doing or whatever. It's baloney, right? He wasn't a cabinet minister or whatever.

Sure, he was the bank Canada governor. So you'd pick his brain. He was the bank of England, a governor too. So, and not only that, I mean, how connected is this guy to get on Jon Stewart, right? So he obviously knew somebody close to him or whatever. So anyways, I think that's, that's the guy who should, who should lead the liberals. And I think that's the guy who should lead the liberals. And I think a poll just came out saying that he had a very favorable, like the question I think was, who do you think would be the best person to deal with Donald Trump and

his name? Mark Carney. Yeah. So that federal leadership election or vote or whatever is March 9. So I'm just tracking all the dates. Okay. So we go to the polls to vote provincially February 27. That's 20 days from now. The federal liberal, although I do advance polling, but okay. The federal liberals pick their leader on March 9th. Let's say in a hypothetical situation that shortly thereafter, and because the liberals are a minority government, we

have to go to the polls federally and it's Mark Carney and Pierre Poliev. Do you have a crystal ball? What do you think happens there? There's a lot of there's a lot of there's huge gap right in the polls, which manifested in Justin Trudeau saying that he was going to resign. And it's hard to catch up. But no one's really paid attention to Pierre Pauliet. And he's just been coasting on everything is in a snide way Trudeau Trudeau that true to that and it's raining

It's icy rain. It's Trudeau. It's because you know when he was asked about about about Trump's Musings about taking over Canada. He said like three words, his first musings, his first response was, said a few words about, you know, Canada, Canada, Canada, whatever he says, but he has no respect for Trudeau. Well, what does that have to do with anything when you have the president of the United States saying that basically Canada should be the 51st state. Fuck you.

Like that should have been everybody's response. Every politician in Canada, so they said we are Canadians, we stand with the government and this is our- Snowballs, chance and hell is what I read from Justin Trudeau. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's too much chance

because I feel like I don't know what a snowball does in hell. Like's too doesn't last long. Yes. It's too long for my liking here. But I'm with you. So, Pierre Pauli have Mark Carney like buckle up. This guy. He's articulate. He's got a sense humor. He's got a twinkle in his eye He's got you know, the the federal liberals have a great social media post and it's sort of a split screen So it's the resume of Pierre polio On the left it's Mark Carney and it just goes down and down World Bank this that whatever Climate change ambassador for United United Nations a bank of Canada governor so it goes on and on and Pierre poliev has been MP since whatever that's ever yeah yeah I think he has a shot so I when people start to see what the comparative leaders of the various parties are I think people will

gravitate to Mark Carney and that's my hope because I don't, I think the last thing we need as Canadians is to have someone like Paulia biting an apple when somebody asks him a question and Trump is the president, right? Right. Who needs that? Sounds risky to me. Now in this writing, because I bring it hyper local here, James Maloney. Here it comes now, It is James Maloney. He's been in he's been there for a while now. He was

there before I even moved in here. I know him well. So does he have your vote? Yeah. That's the only way you're gonna get Mark Carney is. Well, yeah, but I mean, why would I vote for a conservative? Like, why would you vote? But people do. I know they do. Our MPP is from the Progressive Conservative Party. But that's the problem we have. You know, you're a never con, as we say.

You would never vote conservative. I'm trying to remember if I ever did. I've never voted conservative. I don't think I have. I don't think I have. I'm trying to remember if there was a time that've never voted conservative. I don't think I have. I don't think I have. I'm trying to remember if there was a time that I didn't. I don't think I ever have. You didn't slip and vote for Mulroney.

Oh God, no. I had on. So here's, I'm going to recommend an episode of Toronto Mike to you. Alan Gregg. Do you know Alan? Okay. So he dropped by a couple of weeks. I can't remember if it was last week or the week before.

Everything's a blur to me now. And it was a great conversation though. And of course he was the strategist for the Progressive Conservative Party when Mulroney won those two big majorities, but he was also in charge when Kim Campbell was running and John Kretschian, they put out the ad that looked like they were making fun of Kretschian's face

because of his childhood polio. So he took, I think that was when he quit, he quit that next day and he didn't work in politics again. Oh, he did help John Tory with his campaigns as a favour for a bud or something like that. But Alan Gregg was a great episode of Toronto Mike and I think he would thoroughly enjoy it. He's, I know he was on and I, cause I saw the blurb and I'm gonna listen to it. He's a smart guy and I met him many, many years ago because he was buddies with Dusty Cole one of the founders of the Toronto Film Festival and he was very involved with the

Toronto Film Festival yeah yeah so and and I was Dusty was sort of like an uncle to me one my best friends as his daughter and so I remember the early days of the Film Festival and and Dusty had a farm that we would all go up with and people like Alan Gregg would be there. And you know, he's a smart guy. Smart guy. That's funny to me, because I was introduced to Alan Gregg

through a guy named Jesse Hirsch. Smart guy, interesting guy, but he left the city to live on a farm. So maybe that's where we gotta go. Let's go back to the land. Hey. Are you thinking about it go back to the land. Hey, are you thinking about it? I'd love to actually when COVID started when I when I started talking to an ESA about selling our house on Soho around Queeness, but I know you know what

and early days of pandemic, you know what, let's just get some place some crane, not a farm and wouldn't have that kind of cabbage, if you know what I mean, right? As Kramer would say, there's a lot of cabbage. Well, he'd wash it in the shower, right? Yeah. Oh man, that show, I'm telling you, like, I still watch, because I can't,

the day after the election, the American election, I canceled my TV service, right? because the only two channels I would really watch for Turner classic movie even just to have it in the background and I would gravitate to CNN or whatever I'm like just so done with yeah I don't I don't subscribe to any American news networks but the day after that election I spent it with the boss. What are your thoughts on Bruce Springsteen? Oh, wow.

Well, I have great admiration for him. I saw him, a good friend of mine had a bunch of tics to see Springsteen and went to see him. And I had seen him many years before a few times because of other friends. He's an incredible artist. Some of the songs are great. The songs where it's like,

Pilling with a truck and my dad, you know. There's a pale horse coming, I'm gonna ride it. There you go. I ride in the morning my fate's decided a good man walking right but some of his songs like you know are just so spectacular and his performance was great like you could see the band loved he loves the band Street Band yeah it's just great great guy so what do I think of him he's a superstar the saxophonist, because of sadly, Clements died,

but Jay Clements is his nephew. Oh, his nephew, right? He's an FOTM, he's been here. Wow. First thing going on. And I've seen Max Weinberg when I saw the Conan O'Brien filmed here in Toronto in 2003, and I was there for that. Wow.

There you go. Anyways, Bruce Springsteen was fucking awesome the day after that election. He's incredible. Well, yeah, yeah, no, he's like, you know, an artist in the best sense of the word, you know. And he had a good cameo on Curb Your Enthusiasm to bring it back to sign 12. I didn't see it. I've lost touch with Curb Your Enthusiasm. Well, it's done now. But the last two seasons I'm not really on it. So it it all comes back because I did have a comment on the live stream you were talking about JFK no not JFK Robert RFK JFK jr. died in a flight crashed his plane okay yeah although

plays a key role in a great Seinfeld episode because that's why Elaine lost the she saw JFK jr. but RFKK Junior. And he ended up with the Virgin. Right, right. Do you know, right, from Frasier. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jane Leaves or whatever. Okay, do you know who RFK Junior is married to? Yeah, to Cheryl Hines, is it?

Cheryl Hines. The ex-wife of Larry David in the show. You're 100% right, from the ground. And Tyler on the live stream says, and I don't know if he's joking or not, I'm just gonna read it, and then I know exactly how I wanna close this conversation. You've been great.

Sir Jerry, you're always great. Will you come to any more TMLX events? For sure. There's one on June 26th at Great Lakes Brewery. Okay, if I... Very close to you. Will you drive, you can drive there, that's too far to walk. No, if it's a long distance, I walk. Okay, that's how it works. Well will you drive you can drive there? That's too far to know if it's a long distance

I walk that's how it works. Yeah. Well, can you bike with me if you want? I'm gonna bike to it All right. Now the live stream comment. Okay, cool. Do you bike in this weather? Yeah, okay Not everybody does what I'm gonna drive You drove him what next door you live next door to me and you drove okay, so that blue door the blue You live next door to me and you drove. Okay, so that blue liquid that RFK Jr. was drinking, I can't tell if he's joking or not, but the VP tells me it's fish tank cleaner. And you know what's funny, we live in a world

where I don't know if that's a joke or not. Well, that'll get rid of a worm in a brain. That's right, that is right. Okay, so I wanted to close with a conversation, a very topical conversation about the Oscars, but I do have one more note for you, which is that the most recent episode of Toronto Mic'd is me introducing to the FOTM's a gentleman, an interesting gentleman who he doesn't hold back, doesn't pull his punches, he just tells you how he feels and I find it refreshing,

even though I disagree with many of the things he says. I love the fact we can talk about it all. His name is Nick Ienies, and he is a condo developer with Fusion Corp Developments Inc. And the most recent episode is Nick and I just having a chat about what he's up to, what he thinks about this, that, and the other.

And he was here this morning. So I wanna shout out Nick Gainey, the newest sponsor of Toronto Miked and his podcast, Building Toronto's Skyline. One more thing for you, Sir Jerry. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, that's where you go if you got old cables, old electronics, old devices, you don't throw it in the garbage because those chemicals end up in our landfill. You go to RecycleMyElectronics.ca, you put in your postal code, which will be similar to my postal code, and then you'll find out where you can drop it off. Staples near Sherway is a good place to do it. Okay. Can I say something about Sir Jerry?

Yeah. Last night, I was having dinner with Jeff Stober, the owner of the Drake Hotel and the various Drake enterprises. I'd known him a long time. It was a fun dinner. And a couple of other guys, Bill Simpson, who was the general manager of the Drake for many years. So many of my Sergeri shows were at the Drake and the last Sir Jerry show I had was before the pandemic. And I was asked the question. Are you going to do another Sir Jerry show? Right.

To which I said, well, you know, maybe I've always thought maybe if I could get a sponsor or something. So anyways, they want me to do another show. So I think I am going to do another show. Originally, I was going to call it, last night I said, well maybe I should call it Sir Jerry's One Foot in the Grave show, but the kids might not get it. But I think I'm going to do it. Do it man. I have a dream where Sir Jerry comes to TMLX 18 on June 26 at Great Lakes

Brewery. Is there, like I got to remember this because I got to do everything you asked me to do. I'll send an email with the list of things you need to do to earn that lasagna and that Great Lakes beer. Please. So the Oscars are March 2nd. Yeah. I thought we close maybe revisit this and maybe greater detail. Would you mind sharing with us your personal Oscars experience, Sir Jerry

Levitan? Sure. So when my short, I Met the Walrus, was nominated for an Oscar. Maybe get closer to the mic if I could order you what to do. Sure. No, I do whatever you tell me to do. So that in itself, when I got the call from the Academy Awards, it was crazy. And then the section of the Academy Awards, the animated short section was, and I think still is, a relatively small section. And some of the Academy Award nominations are voted on by the entire members of the Academy So best actor best picture that kind of thing

But some of the more esoteric ones like animated shorts is sort of a tight group and back then they still had old Disney animators from you know, the 40s and 50s anyway They asked me to come down a week before the Oscars because they have these tours of animation studios. So I went down a few days before the Oscars, went to every major animation studio from Disney to whatever and there'd be executives there and all that kind of stuff. So it started with a buzz. Then there are these events right before the Oscars.

There's the Oscar lunch thing, that nomination lunch. So I went down for that and it's a tight, small group, just the people nominated and hanging out with George Clooney and Laura Linney. Laura Linney, when I bumped into her, I said, stupid as anything, I said, wow, you look so much better in real life. And she gave me this real Laura Linney sort of look.

Right, but anyways, the Oscars itself. So, CTV, because for a variety of reasons, started to really promote my short and and embraced it so and right after the Oscars they broadcast my short so they were doing all kinds of stuff they had a CTV was down there and and I think, and they were sending limos. And then all of a sudden, CNN got on it and wanted to broadcast live, you know, limo on the way to the Oscars.

So I bumped CTV because CNN's limo was way bigger. And we get to the Oscars and it's like nothing like you can try to imagine How crazy it is it's crazier. So the security is really really tight You have to back then you have to give your cell phones, whatever so You had to give up your cell phone. Yeah. Oh, I didn't know yeah It's like going to a Jack White concert or something. You've got to put it in a zip-lock bag, and they take it.

OK. It's a Mission Impossible kind of thing, Tom. You know? So just going down the red carpet and the media there, and Daniel Day-Lewis is behind you, and it's really that kind of a scene. And you get in the theater, and it's a lockdown, right? So the press isn't there in the theater

other than the broadcasters. And so the seats that we had, there were two seats and ultimately Anissa was sitting with me and the other person who was with me didn't. He was the director of the film sort of went elsewhere. The seats were about six rows behind the front in the centre. For some crazy reason, the animated short nominees were in this prestigious area. That is strange. So to the left of me across, I was at the aisle, on the left side was Mickey Rooney

and his grandchildren holding him up. George Clooney was two over, like I was in a C. Rooney and Clooney, see, because they rhyme. Rooney and Clooney, yeah. So I was in the small C of the big score, Saisy, all these people. Anyways, Jerry Seinfeld Announced the nominees in my category. So it was all just completely

Mishuggah as my people say and Then lawyers who are your people? There's a stereotype That's not what I meant. You know it. Now I will have to fix it in post. I did not mean it that way. So I wasn't really devastated when we lost because the film that won was such a great film.

But anyways, it was just such a buzz to be there. So when we lost and what the audience would see, the credits at the end and whatever, I grabbed Denise's hand and I said, I've got a great line for Jack Nicholson. And she was desperately trying to make me not do it. So against the crowd of people leaving, the stars and directors leaving, I took her down the aisle. Nicholson always in those days was in the front row and whatever with the sunglasses on, we sort of go right up to, I was nose to nose to him. And I said, Hey Jack,

I'm an Oscar loser. And he lifted his sunglasses up and he said, who's this next to you? I said, Oh, that's my girlfriend. And he said, well, you don't look like a loser to me. And he grabbed her and gave her like a, a complete Hollywood kiss on the lips, on the lips and more, right? Like, it was like a serious kiss and she was like just dangling.

And then, uh, then he put his sunglasses down and he says well it was very nice meeting you two but my friend Javier Bardem or whatever is waiting for me right here right and as we were leaving I said to Nisa your lips have now touched a part of every actress in. And she said it's Chinatown, maybe. And then, so it's still very tight. So as we're leaving, what's her name? She played Catwoman in one of the batmen. Halle Berry. No, no.

Oh, Michelle Pfeiffer. No, no, no, no. In the, what's her name? Anne, she was in Devil Wears Prada Hathaway yes and Hathaway so bumping into her what's the name of I like this game by the way you describe I'm elderly what was the name of the great he just he died not that long ago. Leonard Cohen. No, the producer of Sinatra, We Are the World. Oh yeah.

Thriller. Quincy Jones. Quincy Jones. See you had to wait for a second. Only half a second. He was there too. And then you go from there to the Oscar dinner catered by the big Hollywood. Palma Pasta. Palma pasta.

Palma pasta from Mississauga. It was in Mississauga? Yeah, Mississauga and Oakville. Which is crazy that they, they're everywhere. They're in Mar-a-Lago now and they're gonna call them Mar-a-Pasta. Anyways, Wolfgang Puck. Right, famous chef.

So they're all there, right? Having this dinner and you get on every, in front of every, on every plate, there was a chocolate Oscar made by the biggest chocolate person or whatever. And there were these flip books, I still have it. If you come to my home one day, I'll show you. Well, I'm waiting for the invite.

You're gonna get it, we have that. You've only been in FOTM since May. I want show you. Well, I'm waiting for the invite. You're gonna get it. We have that. You've only been in FOTM since May. I want you in the summer, come over to a barbecue drive. Will Jeff Rogers be there? Yeah, yeah. I should actually do it. Drive, drive.

Also leave. I'll bring the Great Lakes beer. Okay, so anyways, you got all these things. So a flip book where it had four or eight movies and you just flip it like great movies like Citizen Kane or whatever. Anyways, dinner is crazy and then because I was friends with the people who won the Oscar to go to the parties afterwards, you hold up your, if you hold up there are all

these lineups to get in, you hold up your Oscar and they let you in like the, that's how you get that. So the C part. So went with them, went to the Elton John party, the vanity fair party. Like it was just, just crazy. But leaving the Oscars after the dinner, for some reason, most people had left already and there are all these limos. You have to get your phone, limos, whatever. As we're leaving, there weren't a lot of people on the reverse red carpet, but in front of us walking in front of us was about four or five feet was John Travolta, his wife and

a forest Whitaker and his wife and they're walking and Travolta trips Oh and he had in his arms about eight or ten of those flip books He obviously took it off other people things so I bend down and I I started helping he says no It's okay. You don't have to help me and I said no happy happy to help and he said why why are you here? What whatever and I said I'm an Oscar loser. And then he looked at me and it wasn't a joke. He says, I lost twice. That's my John Travolta story. He lost for Pulp Fiction.

Yeah. So firstly, when Anissa is kissed on the mouth by Jack Nicholson, and I'm sure he didn't like ask for consent he just does this great jack looks at how did she was she honored was she upset like I'm just curious what her reaction was she wasn't an intimacy coordinator then all right that's right well right right she was actually it was like that's Hollywood baby. It was like, it was so crazy, cool, whatever, right? Right.

What's better than what Trump might've done because he grabs you somewhere. Well you know when you're a celebrity, you can grab somebody's woman bud. Okay, and here's a mind blow for you. By the way, I love hearing your, I'll never forget the Oscars. That's amazing's amazing those stories and I love the Travolta everything Travolta made a movie because you might know he's a Scientologist. Oh that

Battleship battlefield earth. Yeah, here's the mind blow on the way out surgery. You hit it out of the park again You'll be back. Okay, and you'll be at TMLX 18. I'm running, I'm losing track of the numbers. That's 18. June 26, 6 to 9. Okay. We're recording this. You can just go back and play it. June 26, 6 to 9 PM, 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard. That is Great Lakes Brewery. Very close to you. Very close to you. You got it. But do you want me to blow your mind? Okay. Yeah. The director of Battlefield Earth is a guy named, and really build it up, Roger Christian. Okay. Yeah. The director of Battlefield Earth is a guy named and really build it up Roger Christian. Okay. He directed Battlefield Earth, which may or may not be the worst movie ever made. Okay. Where do you think in the world Roger Christian lives? You don't know. Oh my god. What? New Toronto? Our neighborhood? Mimico. Roger Christian lives in Mimico. Wow. In fact, his son was dear friends of the guy who lived across the street, so he would

often be right on this very street. And he did visit me for a backyard recording. We talked all about it because he's the guy who designed the Millennium Falcon, the lightsaber. He was part of the Star Wars team. Roger Christian, battlefield earth, lives in Mimico. Do you know who lives on Second Street? Give me a second, wherever that's really far from here, but let me think here. You're a lawyer, for goodness sake. Hold on, let me think about who lives on Sacca Street. No, but Mary Bird lives near there, but who lives on Sacca Street? Elrond Hubbard.

Is that true? No. He didn't live, fuck you. No, he died. He didn't live in fucking New Toronto. In theory, he died about 10 or so years ago. He definitely died. I thought you were gonna tell me the guy from Cheese Boutique, because I just learned

Afro from the Cheese Boutique lives very close to there. So there you go. And then we got to shout out Karl Hanske and we got to shout out Michelle Butterly. All the greats live in New Toronto, including you, Sir Jerry. Thanks for doing this, buddy. Hey, it's always a pleasure. And that, by the way, Tyler might deliver a West End Phoenix to you free of charge. Wow.

Would you read it? Or would it just line up? Yeah, I'm going to resubscribe. I promise. We got it. Badini, you owe me buddy. We got another one. And that brings us to the end of our 1628th show.

Go to torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Where do I get my Sir Jerry fix? What's the website? Sir-Jerry with a J dot com. Click everywhere with sound. It's unreal. Great website. Go there now. The kids will love it. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery. You got your beer. Palma Pasta. Your lasagna is in my freezer right now. Don't leave without it. RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Building Toronto Skyline. And Ridley Funeral Home. You got your measuring tape, Sir Jerry. My next guest was Holly Cole. Holly Cole, great musician, but I just got word she has to go to Japan, so she's been rescheduled for March 21st or something like that. So in the place of Holly Cole, me? Sir Jerry returns. No, in the guise of Sir Jerry though, I don't want to talk to this Levitanian.

I'll do that. I'll do that. that one day, one, maybe in the summer. But I will be talking to John Wing, a great standup. You might've seen him at Yuck Yucks. He moved to the States and we have a great conversation because he came up in the Jeremy Hotts episode. Jeremy Hotts was amazing, by the way. He was down here earlier this week. And I will talk to John Wing about Ralph Ben-Murgy's set from the early eighties and Wing will reproduce it so we can hear Ben Murrighi's yuck yuck set from the early 80s. See you all then! I'm going to be a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a

little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a Music